Chapter 69 Ding! You have a new food order. What a wonderful day...

"Bai Miaomiao, is he really your brother?"

"Why have I never heard you mention having a brother?"

"Your brother is so tall and handsome!"

Aside from initially replying with an "Mmm," Bai Miaomiao remained silent afterward.

She wasn't a very sociable person. Although it had been a few months since school started, she wasn't very familiar with the classmates in front of her. They had hardly ever spoken to each other. These classmates were very lively in class. Bai Miaomiao knew their names, but she couldn't match them up. Today, she finally matched them up. The tallest one was called Yang Tao, the middle one was called Ye Yun, and the shortest one was called Tao Zhizhi.

The three girls, however, acted very familiar and insisted on going into the classroom with Bai Miaomiao.

Bai Miaomiao felt a little awkward. She was used to being alone and didn't know what to talk about. So she took out her candied hawthorns and asked hesitantly, "Do you...want candied hawthorns? I made them myself, so I might not have any..."

"Yes, yes, yes!" The three girls, without any hesitation, each grabbed a candied hawthorn from the box like a whirlwind.

Then, Bai Miaomiao was inexplicably ushered into the classroom by their chattering chatter.

"Hey, when did you guys become friends?"

A strange, sarcastic voice came from above.

Bai Miaomiao looked up and saw Bai Xun leaning against the entrance to her seat, half of his body slung over her.

Bai Xun is very special, especially chuunibyou (a Japanese term for someone with delusions of grandeur), so Bai Miaomiao met her on her first day of school.

She never wore her school uniform properly; the T-shirt underneath was never part of the uniform. Her jacket was sometimes hanging around her waist, sometimes on her shoulders, and sometimes nowhere to be seen. Her hair was cut very short, and she spoke as if her head was underdeveloped, either dragging out her words or mumbling and unclear. Yet, she always called herself the boss.

All the students in the class, regardless of whether they were boys or girls, young or old, had to call her "Big Brother." If anyone refused, she would find ways to isolate them. Bai Miaomiao was one of the few who were isolated, but she didn't care and was happy to be free.

Bai Miaomiao sat in the second row, and the three girls were all sitting behind her, so all four of them were blocked in for a moment.

"Big brother, can we go over there for a bit?" Tao Zhizhi asked ingratiatingly.

Ye Yun grinned and said, "Big brother, class is about to start, let us go ahead first, we're in a hurry to copy homework."

Yang Tao: "Yes, big brother."

Bai Xun retracted her long legs, which were propped up on the chair opposite her, and let the three of them pass.

The three of them quickly ran to their seats and began whispering to each other.

Do you think Bai Miaomiao will give in to her?

"I don't think so. Bai Miaomiao hasn't paid any attention to her before."

"But Bai Xun didn't stop her before."

"Excuse me, I need to go in," Bai Miaomiao said calmly.

Bai Xun didn't move aside; instead, he stood up straight, his entire body blocking the middle without leaving Bai Miaomiao even a tiny gap.

Bai Miaomiao stared at her silently.

Bai Xun also looked at Bai Miaomiao with a nonchalant attitude.

"What are you holding in your hand?" Bai Xun glanced at the paper box in Bai Miaomiao's hand.

Bai Miaomiao handed the cardboard box to her.

Bai Xun was taken aback for a moment, then asked somewhat bewilderedly, "For me?"

“Mm,” Bai Miaomiao said.

Bai Xun took the box with both hands. The lid wasn't closed tightly and popped open as soon as it was in her hands, revealing two strings of crystal-clear candied hawthorns inside.

One string is a small snowman made of strawberries and bananas.

One string of small turtles is made of Sunshine Rose berries.

cute!

"Could you move aside? Class is about to start, the teacher is coming." Bai Miaomiao looked up at Bai Xun.

"Oh." Bai Xun pressed down the lid of the box and hurriedly made way for Bai Miaomiao.

It wasn't until she returned to her seat that Bai Xun realized Bai Miaomiao hadn't called her "Big Brother"!

The homeroom teacher sat on the podium, and the classroom was quiet. Bai Xun tapped the cardboard box under the desk with his left hand, while his right hand supported his cheek, lost in thought.

"She even gave me candied hawthorns, which means she's submitted to me, right? What's the difference between that and calling me 'big brother'?"

"But I made a bet that I'd get the whole class to call me 'Big Brother' today, and now only Bai Miaomiao is left. Should I admit defeat?"

"Admit defeat? Impossible! Forcing her to call him 'Big Brother'? That's going too far!"

"What are you muttering about?" Bai Xun's deskmate nudged him with his elbow and asked in a low voice.

Bai Xun asked in a low voice, "If a girl gave you all the snacks she brought from home, what would you do?"

My deskmate: "I'll love her to death!"

Bai Xun: "..." Never mind.

...

The weekend is here in the blink of an eye.

An Fusheng and Xu Sannian went to the market early to buy vegetables, and then started washing and preparing them after returning home.

They didn't do much promotion beforehand, so the variety and quantity of dishes they prepared to put on the shelves on the first day were not many.

Early in the morning, the family from the welfare home helped wash and pick the vegetables, and An Fusheng only needed to chop them. Everything was ready before 10 a.m.

Everyone stared at the time, watching it tick by until almost 10 o'clock.

"Beep!" It's exactly 10 o'clock.

"Open for business!"

Xu Sannian launched the ordering system under everyone's watchful eyes.

Then a group of people stared at the computer screen, waiting for the first order to appear.

"Ding! You have a new food order. Please process it promptly!"

"Wow!" came a gasp.

"Let me see what they ordered?" Xu Sannian opened the pop-up order form. "Stir-fried green peppers with pork, stewed chicken with soybeans, green beans, corn and shrimp, stir-fried seasonal vegetables, and two servings of rice! A feast!"

"That's amazing!" Everyone applauded in celebration.

An Fusheng quickly turned around, put on gloves, and started cooking. Then he heard Xu Sannian say, "Hey, isn't this my home address? Did my parents order it?"

Well, thank you for your support, An Fusheng thought to himself. It was impossible to have new customers from the start, but it was still heartwarming to have familiar faces supporting him.

All the ingredients were prepared in advance. Stewing free-range chicken with soybeans takes a long time, so An Fusheng chose to do it first.

Pour half a bowl of soybeans into a pot and stir-fry over medium heat. After about five minutes, the aroma of soybeans will spread from the high temperature. Stir-fry for another two minutes until each soybean turns slightly golden brown. Add a ladle of water. Since the pot and soybeans are hot, adding a ladle of cold water will immediately make them boil.

An Fusheng turned the fire down a bit and let the soybeans boil in the water. He then immediately turned on another stove to start stir-frying the chicken.

Xu Sannian was already a very qualified assistant. Seeing that An Fusheng was busy stir-frying chicken, he went to help watch the soybeans cooking in the pot. The soybeans were easy to cook through after being cooked. After cooking for about three minutes, An Fusheng asked Xu Sannian to pour the cooked soybeans into the drain basket to wash them. After washing them clean, he put them in a bowl for later use.

Stir-fry the chicken over high heat until fragrant, add dried chili pepper pieces and a little soy sauce, then pour in the cooked soybeans, stir-fry evenly, add enough water, add a small piece of chicken blood, cover the pot and simmer over medium heat.

"Don't rush, take your time. My parents must have ordered right away to support us. They're definitely not hungry yet," Xu Sannian said, comforting An Fusheng as he quickly started cooking vegetables after covering the chicken with the lid on.

An Fusheng, however, did not think so. Regardless of what the customers thought, he had to prepare the food as quickly as possible. Otherwise, if the orders piled up later, the delivery drivers would not be able to pick up and deliver the food in time and might even be penalized.

An Fusheng's consideration was correct; he still had one dish to cook, while the deliveryman had already arrived.

To make it easier for delivery drivers to pick up their orders, Wen Min had someone knock on a door in the wall near the kitchen a long time ago. The restaurant's sign was also hung at that door. What used to be a barren open space between the wall and the kitchen has now been replaced with brick walls on both sides, cement on the ground, and a glass roof extending from the kitchen ceiling, where tables and chairs have been placed so that delivery drivers can sit and rest when they come to pick up their orders.

An Fusheng made sugarcane and pear syrup in the morning. When Bai Miaomiao saw that her brother hadn't finished cooking a vegetable dish, she quickly poured a cup of syrup for the deliveryman.

The delivery driver came to this restaurant to pick up an order for the first time. As soon as he entered, he found that it was a family workshop that only did takeout. He thought it would be a dirty and messy environment. While drinking warm sweet soup, he pretended to casually peek inside through the food pickup window.

It's not hard to see inside. The food counter is about half a person's height, but it's as wide as an entire wall. Not far behind the food counter is the cooking station. There are windows in the kitchen, and there's a door at the back. The whole kitchen is very bright.

The kitchen counter is large, with some seasonings and a few prepared vegetables on it. It is clean and tidy. Next to the counter is a stainless steel rack with neatly arranged bowls of chopped vegetables on it. All the bowls are covered with transparent lids and look very clean.

Moreover, the food smelled so good when it was being cooked in the kitchen!

The delivery driver decided that if Zhong was still picking up food nearby, he would stop by and buy one for him.

The vegetables were cooked very quickly; they could be taken out of the pan after just a few quick stirs in the hot wok.

As soon as An Fusheng's vegetables were cooked, Xu Sannian came over to help pack them up.

The orphanage rarely receives outsiders. Although some have come recently, we all know them pretty well. Today, a complete stranger suddenly came, and the children are very curious.

One by one, little heads peeked out from the food counter to observe the deliveryman, who caught sight of a row of fluffy little heads halfway back from the kitchen.

Deliveryman: "..."

"Hello, Uncle!" the white-haired little girl greeted sweetly.

The delivery driver, who had little experience with children, awkwardly imitated the little girl's tone of voice, saying, "Hello...hello everyone."

"Your hat is so cute," Wen Xingmou said.

The deliveryman touched the ears on his helmet and said with some pride, "These are for running fast."

"Wow, you're amazing!" Wen Xingmou praised without reservation.

The delivery driver was so flattered that he was dizzy. Before he could even boast a little more, the food was already ready.

He took the takeout, rode his electric scooter smoothly to deliver the meal to the customer, and when he returned to his scooter, he was surprised to receive a tip.

What a beautiful day!

...

An Fusheng had just finished his first order when the second and third orders came in quick succession. Xu Sannian examined them one by one and found that they were all orders from acquaintances.

As everyone had agreed, an order would come in every ten or twenty minutes. By 11:30, the official lunch time, the ordering system actually quieted down.

“Everyone I know has already ordered,” An Fusheng said calmly.

Xu Sannian said, "How about I shout it out in the classmate or friend group?"

"No need, we can't rely on acquaintances every day from now on," An Fusheng said.

"All right."

"Since there are no orders, let's have lunch first?" Lou Lan walked into the kitchen. "It's probably because it's the weekend, and everyone is cooking at home."

The words had barely left his mouth when a notification popped up: "Ding! You have a new food order. Please process it promptly!"

"New! New! A completely unfamiliar address!" Xu Sannian shouted, "Master, a spicy pork stir-fry set meal plus a children's meal!"

An Fusheng: "Okay!"

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Author's Note: One chapter today, one chapter owed, will make up for it next time. I didn't manage to slack off at work, my boss made me write a speech...